safneo Posted April 9, 2009 Report Share Posted April 9, 2009 I am always astounded by the legal system in this country! Where has common sense disappeared to! Well done Wendy on reporting this person/site. I'm sure that any of us would have copied the site for exactly the same reason knowing how horrendous it was and not wanting the person/s to get away with it. I do hope that the matter is resolved quickly for you. Please look into the advice that the lovely people (owl/kathy) have provided for you too. The more help you get the sooner it can be resolved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
owl Posted April 9, 2009 Report Share Posted April 9, 2009 Wendy, you are a brave lady. You and Johan have all our support. You must have been frightened out of your wits, especially when you were already in a state of shock after seeing those things on the net. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rumpole Posted April 9, 2009 Report Share Posted April 9, 2009 Oh My Word i cant even begin to imagine how you feel right now wendy, and regardless of procedure its a despicable way to treat someone reporting a serious offence to you all id keep a copy of your original thread on here as it is dated and timed and clearly states your horror at what you found and at least should anything more come of this you have that as proof of what happened and about a million of us as witnesses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotslass Posted April 9, 2009 Report Share Posted April 9, 2009 Wendy, you are a brave lady. You and Johan have all our support. You must have been frightened out of your wits, especially when you were already in a state of shock after seeing those things on the net. I can only echo those words. What a terrifying experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathyw Posted April 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2009 Glad to see you back Wendy - I was watching tele and didn't see you had posted - oops. Over to you. Nite nite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spins4me Posted April 9, 2009 Report Share Posted April 9, 2009 Wendy, I want to thank you so much for telling us about the site you found. I've passed on your warning to my daughter who has two young children. She regularly posts on a site for parents of young children and she is going to warn them all about posting photos. I hope the horrible situation with the police is resolved soon. Barbara Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houndzrus Posted April 10, 2009 Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 I do not regret calling the police.... because it will be investigated but I do feel a huge weight on my shoulders that I have been treated as I have today. And that I dont know what will come of this. :GroupHug: What a nightmare! I'm so sorry you're being put through this, but well done for being brave enough to confront it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted April 10, 2009 Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 While Wendy had the best of intentions; mad thought it sounds, a lot of people who gain enjoyment from these images actually do report it to the police or other hotlines themselves - especially if they have reason to think that they have been found out by a friend or family member. The reason very often given to police is that they were "doing research" for a book, or project and assume that this will let them off the hook Common sense suggests that criminals would not make contact with the police themselves, but in reality, this often happens - and Police are made aware that just because someone reports something doesn't mean they are innocent I am confident that this will all be resolved for Wendy in time; but it is a very distressing situation for everyone involved None the less, if the police want the public to report stuff like this then they need to revise their procedures. Policing can only work by consent, and that goes double on the web. Frankly, if a young mum with a small child who used Google is being treated like this, then I do not see that the police can have a cat in hell's chance of persuading less obviously innocent people to report what they have found, if they know that they willl be treated as guilty until they are proved innocent. Say a young man who is doing teacher training stumbled across dubious material while surfing perfectly legal adult pornography: having heard this story, I'm not sure I could advise him to report it and put a whopping great question mark over his own future career, and potentially lose both his computer and his coursework. I am deeply impressed with Wendy following this through, and I think she is very brave and very strong. But lets face it, most people are not that brave. If you have to be so strong to report a suspected crime then most people are not going to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendywoo1972 Posted April 10, 2009 Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 None the less, if the police want the public to report stuff like this then they need to revise their procedures. Policing can only work by consent, and that goes double on the web. Frankly, if a young mum with a small child who used Google is being treated like this, then I do not see that the police can have a cat in hell's chance of persuading less obviously innocent people to report what they have found, if they know that they willl be treated as guilty until they are proved innocent. Say a young man who is doing teacher training stumbled across dubious material while surfing perfectly legal adult pornography: having heard this story, I'm not sure I could advise him to report it and put a whopping great question mark over his own future career, and potentially lose both his computer and his coursework. I am deeply impressed with Wendy following this through, and I think she is very brave and very strong. But lets face it, most people are not that brave. If you have to be so strong to report a suspected crime then most people are not going to do it. Thank you Cyas. This comment sums up so much. It was put across to me that I had commited an illegal act which could leave me being prosecuted. What makes me so angry in all of this is the fact that I didnt wake up one morning and think hey I know I am going to go searching on my computer looking for this sort of thing. I woke up and had an email saying someone had left a comment on my photo blog.... I read the comment and was totally shocked and horrified that someone could write/think thoughts of my daughter. My reaction and my husbands reaction in that moment were oh my who on earth would write such a thing. We googled a username we did not google anything else. A list of links came up when I clicked on that link I had no idea what I was stumbling on. The policeman said just by searching that mans name I commited an offence. He seemed to not grasp I did not ever go out looking for this. It came to my door step. To then be told you are a criminal and possibly will be prosecuted the distress and fear I felt in that moment I can not put into words. When I broke down I was asked why are you being emotional. I expressed to him that I am not trained as an officer of the law to look at what I had looked at how I cant erase what I saw from my mind forgive me if I have a heart and have emotion I also expressed my concern that if I was prosecuted what that means for me having a daughter to even be linked to something like that the impact of what he was accusing me of and bunching me together with when all I wanted to do was help the police in finding the criminals I was suddenly being accused of the most unthinkable. I was never once advised not to save the content why oh why didnt they tell me dont save anything it is illegal when I phoned up to report this??? I would not be where I am today.... I fully support the police in searching out and catching these people I really do I do not support the manner in which I have been treated. I have no problem in them taking my computer. I do have a problem that my photos my documents my reciepts from banking transactions and so much will now be deleted forever, I was not given an opportunity to save my personal things and certainly was not told at the time that my whole hard drive will be wiped I thought one day I would get my photos back . It seems so little but lesson learned to keep my future documents backed up. Right now I have one piece of paper in my possesion saying that my computer has been siezed as evidence since it contains indecent images of children. I feel sick every time I look at it. I have nothing that says I was in fact a witness and not a criminal My emotion in all of this probably means I am not expressing things well please know that if the same thing happened again I would report it, but of course I now know never to save anything just to report it, but the impact this is having on my life I cannot explain. Thank goodness some sanity is prevailing. While those posts were going on, I was talking to a lovely helpful lady at NSPCC. She says that Wendy should certainly talk to a solicitor for her own future protection. She should also go to the government site dealing with websites of this nature. It is jointly run by NSPCC and the police. www.ceop.gov.uk There is a box to click "report harmful content" where a complaint can be logged against a website. The incident will eventually be reported to CEOP but if Wendy would like to speed things up, she can log it on CEOP site as described. If she would rather NSPCC logged it on her behalf, she can ring their main number or email them on [email protected] Thank you owl. I certainly am going to be seeking legal advise on tuesday, I was advised about ceop after reporting to the police as the phone rang to say they were coming around I was actually looking on the website, the police phoned and I thought that is ok they will now deal with this I never ever expected what followed I was so happy that the police were coming around and finally something was going to be done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotslass Posted April 10, 2009 Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 We googled a username we did not google anything else. A list of links came up when I clicked on that link I had no idea what I was stumbling on. The policeman said just by searching that mans name I commited an offence. Well, if that's an offence, it's the first I've heard of it. Why on earth shouldn't you google a username? Did he mean that because of the nature of the person's comments (to your photos) that you shouldn't have googled his username? How are you supposed to know that doing such a thing (ie googling people's usernames) is illegal? It's very frightening to imagine oneself in your position - I am so sorry you're having to go through this. You must feel utterly let down by the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trallwm farm Posted April 10, 2009 Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 Wendy you do need now to get some backing. There is victim support for a start. You need to get your stuff on record. What will happen is that the police will protect thier actions at all costs. If you dont have your version recorded then at some point you possibley will have more stuff happening than you ever dreamed possible. How do you think I and other people end up at war with the police ? I have no criminal record I did nothing wrong yet I ended up criminalised. I hope that what Im writing wont happen and that you can discard any thoughts of this but just in case record everything and get someone else watching the situation. Social services will have been informed and you will have that to deal with that next. Its a nasty place to be run by people who knock off at five and go home only to return at nine to start again. They wont care what happens as a result of you trying to do the right thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mooandboo Posted April 10, 2009 Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 Social services will have been informed and you will have that to deal with that next. Hopefully they will be as sympathetic and understanding as they were when someone contacted them about Ceri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loo Posted April 10, 2009 Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 I don't have a high opinion of the police anyway but this does begger belief. You have my admiration for reporting this and being strong and you are in my thoughts and prayers. More s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikaela Posted April 10, 2009 Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 Wendy I am so sorry this has happened to you and your family Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trallwm farm Posted April 11, 2009 Report Share Posted April 11, 2009 It just shouldnt be happening. I know they have to investigate but why not go find some criminals Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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